Indo Ambassador

Attending the CDU Waterfront campus I happened across this beauty.

An Indonesian Rickshaw, freshly painted and sporting promotional banners from  Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia

Singapore 2017

Back to this much neglected blog...

Well I don't have anything particularly profound or ground breaking to share. The world seems to be moving along quite happily without transitioning to renewable energy or awakening to the virtues of pedal powered transport.... Well as far as Australia is concerned anyway.

However I was recently in Singapore, where, although there appears to be a similar decline in the use of bicycles as a serious transport option, they do at least have some remnant machines worth taking a few photos of. 

So basically here is a collection of photos I took of remnant rickshaws and utility tricycles I happened to see while I was there.

Service trike. There are several around town they collect rubbish

Cargo Trike - Old but still being used by a gleaner collecting recyclable bottles

Rickshaw - On display at the food court near the monorail station to Sentosa Island

Extra long cargo trike - Huge potential as a hearse @ Sentosa Island

Uncles Trishaws in Little India

Cargo Trike - Not sure what it's being used for, possibly a vendor

Uncle's Trishaw - parked

Trishaw parking bay

Utility Trike - fairly new looking in good condition

Tricycle rubbish collector

New Home

(Delayed post from 2 years ago... forgot to hit the publish button, ;))

Damnit! I missed a whole month (more) of blogging.
Too busy, working and moving and working and moving and working.... literally...

A week of logistical management, cooking, cleaning, driving, booking flights and all that... followed by a couple of weeks of trying to shift 17 years worth of life into another house, consoling wife and kids along the way.... followed by another week and a half of 15 hours or more per day of the same kind of logistical stuff I do for a living, followed by, what I thought would be a break but turned out to be a combination of helping a friend move house and sorting out logistical crap unexpectedly for work again... There were some ordinary moments in amongst it which I owed my family since I'd accrued a serious time debt...

And now here I am somewhere down the line in the middle of July and finally get a chance to sit at my computer and I'm so stuffed all I can post is a picture of a blue winged kookaburra on the clothes line of my new place... and the Double barred finch who's eggs he stole!

Catch ya later.  

Cambodia pop rock revival

My interest in rickshaws or cyclo extends beyond a fascination with the machine itself. It's not just about the lifestyle of the rickshaw wallah either. I suppose my deepest interest is in the idea that we can live more simply cooperatively and happily than the modern consumer resource hungry world offers.
I find myself constantly rebelling at the homogenization of our society and love to see other cultures forcing their way into the mainstream. A couple of years ago I met Julien and Channthy of the awesome band Cambodian Space  Project CSP. There is so much I love about this band that I can't type on my phone as I sit here in the blood bank (with daytime TV blaring in the background).

CSP Are the merging of past, present and future, funk, rock pop tradition and culture. 
Please check out some of their stuff online. You will be amazed and entertained!
Their current show in Sydney includes a cosmic funkadelic golden galactic cyclo! Proving that futuristic space travelers know how to travel in style!

http://www.pozible.com/project/194460

Bakpao vendor Bali

While in Bali last week I saw several tricycle vendors.

Here's one of interest. The Bakpao cart.

BAKPAO (INDONESIAN STEAMED DUMPLING SNACK)

Bakpao vendor on Legian beach during Melasti ceremony March 2015

Time for a re-build

The Long bike is due for a major overhaul again, this time I don't know if I can save the frame.

The problem is that the thread in the frame where the bottom bracket screws in must be stripped. The bottom bracket has all but broken free of the frame but I cannot unscrew it.

I've looked around for a second hand replacement frame but haven't been able to find any suitable donor bikes. Mountain bikes these days seem to all come with suspension on the front, I need more rigidity.  If I can't re-tap the thread for the bottom bracket, I am really going to need a suitable steel frame with rigid forks to transfer the Xtracycle onto. I never thought they would have become so hard to find.

I don't intend to start this fix until about April or May when the weather improves but I sure hope I find a solution before then. I doubt I'll be satisfied with another frame so I'm starting to think I aught to ask around at some engineering places to see if it's possible to insert a sleeve and re-tap the thread.

Wooden cargo trike

Last week we visited Werribee zoo and saw this really interesting cargo trike.
I have no idea where it was made but it seems quite sturdy.

The frame is sculpted plywood with steel inserts for the dropouts, bottom bracket and various other moving parts.

 The Storage space in front is a plastic drum

Check the interesting location of gear selector.